>>>I would like to be able to demo our application remotely via the Internet. Our local workstation's configuration is XP PRO, VFP6/7, cable modem, router and software firewall.
>>>I realize that there will have to be some degradation in terms of screen refreshing, etc but we don't want the demo to crawl for obvious reasons.
>>>It is not a requirement for the other party to be able to control the mouse or keyboard at our end.
>>>Any recommendations?
>>
>>Under XP, you could allow the use of Remote Assistance for someone with the RDP protocol on their machine, or install and use NetMeeting to share a Window or the Windows Desktop to another user; both cost nothing other than setup time, and opening a port on the firewall to let them in.
>
>Ed,
>
>I have not used Remote Assistant in XP PRO.
>Is there some sort of free (or inexpensive) client that can be sent to the remote end that is compatible with W98, W2000, NT and XP?
>TIA.

Hi Allan,

Remote Desktop install for other clients is actually the Terminal Services Client. The problem with it is that with Remote Desktop, you don't get sharing: the remote user controls the desktop. For Remote Sharing, you have to have XP to XP.

With regard to firewalls: you can handle this in two ways. For Remote Desktop, you have to open a port (findable in the XP help, I think), or port forward to the desktop for that port.

You probably want NetMeeting for demos with sharing involved. You can do this behind a firewall, too; search MSDN to see which ports you have to forward to your machine. The good news is that unless the remote firewall is totally blocking ports, only you have to be visible on the net: the user calls you, using you're IP address. Or any domain name or subdomain name you have pointed to that address.

I do both of these things (Remote Desktop and NetMeeting) daily, fwiw. For Remote Desktop, another alternative is to use a VPN on your network: so long as there is no conflict between IP addresses on your home network and the network you are on at, say, a client's, you can Remote Desktop using your _internal_ IP address, once you are connected via the VPN. I haven't trie NetMeeting this way, but it should work similarly. The beauty of this approach is that you don't have to do any port forwarding.

Hank